Leave It To Astoria
by wittynotclever
Summary: I really hate couples. All they seem to do is snog and fight. I would never, ever be caught in a relationship like that, believe me...    But I might just be the reason that one is ending.
1. Meet Astoria

**Hello everyone! I just wanted to put this quick note here to say that I changed Astoria's age from canon, so she's just a year behind Draco and Pansy. Alrighty, enjoy!**

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><p>Why do couples have to be so public about everything? Some were okay, like my sister and her boyfriend. When they with around other people, it's just hugs, hand holding, and the occasional peck on the cheek. I can be around people like that, almost everyone can. Then, there are "the others," the kind of couples that you want to strangle or hex or both. They would randomly just stop in a corridor and start snogging for what seemed like ages, effectively slowing down the traffic of Hogwarts students.<p>

Exhibit A. I was walking from Potions, slowly making my way up to the Slytherin common to start some homework before dinner. All of a sudden, the student ahead of me swerved to the left, leaving me to run right into the kissing couple. I stumbled back a step, trying to regain my footing.

"Watch where you're going!" the girl shrieked. I glanced up and recognized the girl right away. Pansy Parkinson was glaring down at me, like it was my fault that she chose the middle of the bloody corridor to enthusiastically snog her boyfriend. Hello! Of course someone was bound to run into them.

"Come on, Pansy, she's not worth it," her boyfriend said, pulling on her hand. My eyes narrowed and flashed up to the boy. Once I realized who it was, I understood the annoyance and almost bitterness in his voice. Draco Malfoy and my sister, Daphne, had dated very briefly the previous year, right before she broke up with him for his best friend, Blaise Zabini. Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it, Malfoy still seemed to treat me like I was the one who had dumped him. Go figure.

Pansy didn't really like me, either. Well, that was a stretch. It wasn't specifically me she didn't like. It was anyone who was prettier than her or had a chance of stealing Draco away from her. That was most of the female population of Hogwarts and I happened to fall under that category.

Anyway, after the two lovebirds walked away, I moved my bag farther up my shoulder, continuing on to the common room. Just as I was turning the corner, I ran straight into some other set of students kissing very passionately.

I hate couples.

As soon as I sat down on the couch, Daphne appeared beside me. We may have been sisters, but we were nothing alike. Our parents friends always said that they should have stopped with her. Daphne Greengrass was the perfect pureblood daughter. She followed along with everything they said, did whatever they told her, and was always well-behaved. I, on the other hand, could care less about all the pureblood mania. I was rude, abrasive, too honest, corrupted, etc. Well, that was what my parents "friends" called me. I preferred brutally honest and not afraid to speak my mind.

"So," Daphne started, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I heard you had a run in with Pansy earlier today."

I groaned. "Don't remind me. She and Malfoy were parked in the middle of the corridor and I ran into them. Literally." Daphne held back a laugh. I still don't know why everyone thinks she's so perfect. I mean, I love her, don't get me wrong. It's just weird that no one actually sees her like this.

"It's not funny, Daph," I whined. "I thought Pansy was going to rip my head off."

Daphne paused, confused. "Wouldn't she have hexed you? She did have her wand, right?'

It was my turn to laugh. That would be why everyone thought Daphne was great. She didn't see the stupid side to people. "Like she could've pulled off any spell. I know less spells than she does and I could probably beat her in a duel." As I was finishing, Daphne's eyes got wide and she started shaking her head back and forth slightly. I frowned, not sure what she was doing.

"You want to bet on that, Greengrass?" a voice hissed behind me. I turned around, figuring out why Daphne was freaking out.

"Do we really have to do this, Parkinson?" I sighed. "I've never done anything to you, why do you hate me so much?"

Her face instantly turned beet red and her fists clenched. I didn't usually get scared of things easily, but I was worried. Pansy was really, really upset about something all of a sudden. I made sure to reach in my back pocket to see if my wand was there.

We had the attention of everyone in the common room. A lot of people made fun of Pansy behind her back, in fact, I'm pretty sure everyone did, but no one, besides maybe the Gryffindors, said it to her face. She may have been a complete pain in the arse, but she was a pain in the arse with influence. Aside from Daphne, her best friend Riley, my best friend Carolyn, and me, the girls in Slytherin House almost looked up to her. I still didn't understand why they would want to, but at that moment, I was regretting trying to go against her.

"Okay, I guess I've done something to make you upset with me," I offered. "But since I have no idea what it would be, maybe we could just forget and move on?"

I was ready for her to whip out her wand and (try) to hex me into next week when Malfoy, who had been mysteriously absent from Parkinson's side, appeared. "Hey, let's just try to calm down and not curse anybody," he prodded, pulling the wand out of Pansy's clenched hand.

I sat back in surprise. From experience, I would have expected Malfoy to just sit back and watch as his girlfriend tried to shoot whatever she has at me. I wasn't the only one who was shocked. Daphne was giving Malfoy a strange look, like she was confused as to why he would do what he did.

Parkinson glared at him before snatching her wand out of his hand and storming up to the sixth year girl dormitory. The slam of the door echoed through the silent dormitory. Absolutely no one was talking, not even whispering to their friends.

"Well," I said, breaking the silence, "on that note, I'm going to bed."

"Is it true that Pansy Parkinson almost killed you during a duel last night and you didn't tell me?"

"Good morning to you, too, Carolyn," I grumbled, flipping the page of my Transfiguration . The brunette frowned and bounced around her seat. I had to stifle a laugh. I had absolutely no idea how the Hat had thought that Carolyn Mesersmith was Slytherin-like in any aspect of the word. She was bubbly, bright, cheery, everything that wouldn't be used to describe a Slytherin. Carolyn was really into any gossip going around at Hogwarts. I wasn't surprised that the "little spat" Parkinson and I had was already news. Nothing was really ever a secret.

"Come on, please just tell me! Is it true or not?" she whined.

"Of course it is!" I deadpanned. "I barely managed to escape with both my hands! She tried to cut them off so I couldn't use my wand."

"Really?" Carolyn gasped. Her eyes were huge.

"No!" I said. "Like that would really happen, Carol." Carol looked crestfallen, like I had just ruined her whole day, even though it was only breakfast. "There was an argument, but it didn't get to any magic. Malfoy broke it up before anything happened. Pansy was really upset about something, though. She was even mad at Malfoy."

"I know," she said.

"Wait, how do you know?" I asked. "You weren't there."

Carolyn pointed about six people down from us to where Pansy and Malfoy were sitting. Once I focused on them, I could hear that Pansy was arguing with Malfoy about something. She was speaking quietly, but her arms were waving around and she kept pointing down the table. Malfoy would try and say something, but it looked like every time he tried, she would cut him off.

"Wonder what they're talking about," I mumbled. Carolyn just gave me a weird look, like 'why-would-would-care?' I shrugged and turned back to my Potions book. I got maybe four words into what the potion actually did when Pansy jumped up from the table.

"You are so infuriating!" She stomped away from Malfoy, towards where her friend Millicent Bulstrode sat. As she went by, she glared down at me. Like I had anything to do with her fight with her boyfriend. I glanced back down to where Malfoy was sitting and as I did, his eyes met mine and didn't move. Quickly turning back to my book, I tried to busy myself with reading, telling myself that I was just being paranoid. It's not like I was the reason that Malfoy and Pansy were fighting.

Right?

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><p><strong>So, tell me what you think. I really would love feedback on pace of the story. Just don't review saying, "It's really good!" or "I loved it!" without telling me why. It bugs me to no end! I really don't even care if you flame this story, as long as you tell me why. On that note, tell me how I'm doing!<strong>


	2. Not My Fault

"Tori. Tori! ASTORIA!"

I jolted awake, getting tangled up in my covers. "I'm up, I'm up, what's wrong?"

Carolyn stood at the foot of my bed, hands on her hips. "Tori, we have fifteen minutes until classes start and you haven't even gotten out of bed yet!"

Carolyn stuck our roommate Katherine's Muggle watch in my face. We did, in fact, only have twenty minutes until our Transfiguration class started. "Crap!" I said, jumping out of bed. I grabbed whatever clothes were closest to me and ran into the bathroom.

Carolyn talked to me through the door. "I'll grab you something from the Great Hall, just don't be late for class, you know how McGonagall gets if you miss even a little bit. "

I heard her walk away and I continued to rush through everything. In five minutes, I had successfully gotten dressed and ready. I ran into the dormitory and grabbed my bag, hoping that I had everything I needed. The common room was deserted as I sprinted through it. My feet echoed loudly through the corridors. I knew I was really late at that point, because there was always _somebody_ in the corridors.

I finally managed to make it to the Transfiguration classroom. I yanked open the door, hoping that class hadn't started yet.

"Miss Greengrass, thank you for joining us. Please take your seat and five points from Slytherin for tardiness," McGonagall said. Thoroughly embarrassed, I took my seat next to Carolyn. "Now, as I was saying," the professor continued.

As I unpacked my books, I turned to Carolyn. "She was really lenient with taking points away. How late am i?"

Carolyn kept her eyes on McGonagall as she whispered back, "She had just started as you walked in."

I groaned. Really? I was late by about thirty seconds? Maybe if I had cut through the one passageway…

It was when I glanced up to listen to the lesson when I noticed the staring. When I looked at someone, they quickly looked back down at whatever they were doing. The Slytherins especially were looking at me. I knew it wasn't because I had come in late. That usually only got a little whispering before class started back up. I was even getting death glares from some of the girls.

"Carol, did I miss something at breakfast? Everyone is staring at me."

Carolyn hesitated before mumbling, "I'll tell you after class."

"Ok, so you're probably not going to like this," Carolyn started. She had already given me the muffin she had saved from breakfast and I was almost inhaling it as we walked to Charms. Just walking down the corridor, people were staring and giving me glares. Some of those I'm sure were because I was stuffing my face. The others, well, I was about to find out the reason for those.

"At breakfast, I guess Parkinson and Malfoy had a huge row before I got there. Parkinson was extremely mad at him about something. Malfoy actually got into it this time, shouting back at her."

"Wait," I said, cutting Carolyn off before she could continue. "What does that have to do with me?"

Carolyn shot me a look. "I am _getting_ to that," she responded. I rolled my eyes. You never got the condensed version with Carolyn.

We stopped in front of the Charms classroom, a little away from everyone else. "Well, after that, Pansy got extremely upset. She went off on Malfoy, saying he didn't really care about her, she was just some girl to him. So, he broke it off."

My eyes widened. "Really? They're done?"

Carolyn nodded, but before she could continue, Professor Flitwick opened the door and let us in. All of us filed in, taking our seats. After Flitwick gave us instructions, everyone started talking.

I turned to Carolyn, waiting to hear the rest of the story. She hesitated, fiddling with her wand. I nudged her with my elbow and she reluctantly turned to me.

"And?" I prompted.

Carolyn continued, "And then Pansy said that if…that if…"

"If?" I repeated.

"That if, and these are her words, not mine," she stalled.

"Carolyn, just get to the bloody point!" I hissed. She took a deep breath and said the next thing in a rush.

"She said that if he wanted to break up with her for a bitch like Astoria Greengrass, then that was his choice, but she was going to do everything she could to make his life and yours a living hell."

'Your House will be like your family.' Yeah, great philosophy Professor. Can I see it actually happen now?

I swear the Slytherins hated me the most for 'causing' Malfoy and Parkinson's breakup. I lost count of how many times I've said "It wasn't my fault" in the time between Charms and dinner. The only people that would talk to me were Carolyn and Daphne. Even then, if Blaise were with Daphne, it was so awkward that she left after one or two minutes.

The other Houses talked, but they weren't as in my face about it. Still, it hurt. Just because my name was mentioned in a breakup, didn't mean that I was some sort of disease. It just meant that I happened to be the person Pansy was most upset with at the time.

I think.

Carolyn and I were walking back up to the common room when I froze. She stopped and looked back at me. "What?" she asked.

"Wait, Pansy said that Malfoy broke up with her because of me, right?"

Carolyn rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. I mean, there must be some completely different reason the whole school isn't talking to you," she answered back.

I stuck my tongue out at her. "I'm serious," I continued. "What if…what if she was telling the truth?"

Carolyn just laughed. "Yeah, right," she said. "And Death Eaters will take over the school, right after Dumbledore is killed. Come on, Tori, be realistic here. This is Pansy Parkinson we're talking about."

I started to argue with her, but then I realized that she was probably right (about the Pansy thing, not the Death Eaters and Dumbledore). I continued to walk forward again, trying to catching up with Carolyn. She turned a corner ahead of me. I jogged to get closer and as soon as I rounded the corner, I literally bounded off of someone going the other way.

How does that keep happening to me?

I would have fallen right on my arse if the person hadn't grabbed my arm and pulled me back up before quickly letting go. That caused me to almost fall down again. _Great help you were_, I thought.

"Sorry, wasn't looking where I was going," the person muttered. I looked up, shocked. Obviously, they must not have seen who I was if they were _talking _to me, much less apologizing.

"Oh, Astoria, I wanted to talk to you," the person said. It took me a minute to realize that it was Malfoy that had run into me. I just stared at him, completely unsure as to why he would be talking to me. If I were him, I would never want to see myself ever again. I mean, I was the reason that Pansy was going to try and ruin his life. "Listen, I just wanted to tell you not to let Pansy get to you, alright? She's just upset right now and went a little over the edge. It'll blow over soon. Sorry that you got dragged into all of this." _Wait, what?_ I thought. _He's... apologizing? Why would he do that? Unless..._

He paused for a second, like he wanted to say something else, but all he did was give me a half smile and walked away. I sat that dumfounded, trying to figure out what this could mean, but one thing kept popping up at the front of my mind. _He never denied what Pansy had said was the reason for the break up._

Carolyn had walked back to me after she realized I wasn't behind her. "Tori, why are you just standing there? I thought you wanted to get to the common room?" I opened and closed my mouth several times before being able to form the words I needed.

"I think Pansy was right."

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><p><strong>So again, tell me what you think! Just always tell me why you loved it or why you thought it was the worst thing in the world.<strong>


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